Greetings from the campus of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, where the 17th annual Roger Ebert Film Festival is underway. I am delighted to be appearing on a panel of very distinguished film critics this morning and will post a link when it is online. Yesterday I was thrilled to see one of my favorite films, “Moving Midway,” followed by a discussion with the director, Godfrey Cheshire and, via Skype, his cousin, Professor Robert Hinton.

We then got a special treat, a pre-release screening of “The End of the Tour,” directed by James Ponsoldt (“The Spectacular Now,” “Smashed”), and starring Jason Segal as David Foster Wallace. Ponsoldt and Segal discussed the film afterward with Rogerebert.com editor Brian Tallerico and festival director Nate Kohn.  Segal told us his biggest challenge in making the film was in the scenes with Wallace’s dogs — “having to do serious acting with salmon down my pants.”

Today I am especially looking forward to one of my favorite Ebertfest traditions — a silent film with live musical accompaniment from the Alloy Orchestra.